February 7th, 2013 – Shama’s Visit

YAY one of my unicorn sisters has finally visited! After a very tempting ethiopian food photo and an unused United voucher, Shama booked a ticket to see me! The only two things she asked for were Manitou Incline and ethiopian feast!

The journey to Denver was a rough one. She was scheduled to land mid afternoon on Thursday, but somehow the plane had a bit of an issue and flew back to Hawaii. We scrambled another ticket for her so she could still make the trip. Long story short she made it Thursday night! Our Colorado journey began.

Ethiopian Wine Axumit

Our first stop was Axum Ethiopian Restaurant. I collected 3 groupons for my self-guided ethiopian food tour!

Veggie Combo for Two

YUMMY is all I can describe. I don’t know the names, but the combo consisted of lentils of multiple kind, chickpea, collard greens, cabbage, string beans and a salad. OMG. How do these ethiopians make veggies so tasty?! We ended the dinner with a slice of cheesecake, and some Jean Philippe chocolates!

Friday the weather was amazing, we charged it up to Manitou Springs early to give Shama a taste of Colorado Kokohead!

Manitou Incline with My Branch

Although the temperature was in the 40s, there was great deal of snow and oooops ice on the trail. I totally did not bring MicroSpikes and yes fell on my ass running down Barr Trail. Ouch.

The Amazing Deli Rose

After Manitou, we had some sandwiches and coffee at Mate Factor in town and went on a Colorado wine adventure.

Cheese & Wine at the Wines of Colorado

We totally did not need all that food, but the concept of having all the Colorado wines at one place for a free tasting is too good to say no to! We ordered some cheese anyway!

With all that food in our tummies, we went on a journey to the Garden of the Gods. Supposedly an easy hike with well-marked trail, I still managed to get us lost in the woods. The good news is, we now have room for more Ethiopian!

Veggie Combo for Two

Our second Ethiopian stop was Abyssinia Restaurant. This was where the trouble all started, because we weren’t satisfied with a veggie combo for TWO, we ordered another one. Haha and demolished it.

Cheers to the Unicorn Sisters

Temperature took a huge dip the next day, I planned a snowshoe trip for her in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Snowshoes make you walk funny!!!

Amazing Rocky Mountains

Mysterious Trail Blazers

Breathtaking

Lots of moose-like footprints, but no moose sighting. The snow was coming down hard as we hiked up, we decided to cut the trip short to avoid being trapped in the mountains. After returning the snowshoes, we took a stroll on Pearl Street of Boulder and tried out SALT Bistro.

And then more Ethiopian.

BEST Veggie Combo for Two

Queen of Sheba took our hearts away. There was only 1 lady working and to be honest, she was really slow. We enjoyed our wine and chatted up a storm while waiting. The food was worth the wait! It was the best we had, and we ordered another one! HA HA the lady had the most surprised/excited look on her face and brought up another huge order. It was so amazing!!!

Sunday was super cold so we settled for the gym. Tabata was meh but we had some fun doing TKB fueled by Ethiopian food! I took her to Balistreri for lunch and some more free wine tasting.

Yummy Grilled Veggies

The We-Are-Asian Pic

We couldn’t help but to take the Asian girl opening our eyes wide pic for fun.

After lunch, we were still not satisfied with the morning workout so I drove us back to Manitou. It was all sunny and nice until we were close by the snow storm rolled in and we weren’t able to hike it again! Ended up spending the day souvenir shopping and went to a beer tasting for Shama.

For our last night, we had dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen. Not Ethiopian, INDIAN!

Aloo Gobi, Paneer Masala and Chana Masala

I finally learned Indian food name. It wasn’t that hard, the name basically consists of either the ingredients, or the ingredient plus sauce. So good. Indians (and Ethiopians) sure know how to cook their veggies!!! OMG. I can turn vegetarian now.

It was also Chinese New Years. We celebrated our last night along with Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day with wine, our favorite cashews and black sesame ice cream!

For her departing breakfast, I took her to Sam’s No. 3 for a heart attack skillet and some sopapillas!

Denver Skillet Smothered in Green Chili

Evil Sopapillas

This meal kept me full till dinner! Haha!

Overall an amazing staycation. I’m getting good at this tour guide thing! It sure makes me appreciate Colorado more, there are just endless things to enjoy!

Already missing my unicorn sister, hope the girls visit again soon before I move back!!!

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